NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Review

Conclusion

A little more than six months ago, NVIDIA took the wrapper off their GF104 architecture to rave reviews and excellent sales figures. Now with the introduction of the GF114-based GTX 560 Ti we are seeing a continuation of NVIDIA’s winning ways in a highly popular price bracket.

What has happened with the GTX 560 Ti shouldn’t be lost on anyone because we are finally seeing some serious forwards movement in a market that had almost stagnated. In a mere six months this new card has been released at almost the same price as the GTX 460 was and yet provides an average of 35% better performance without consuming significantly more power. In our books, that’s impressive.

When compared against its immediate competition, the GTX 560 Ti simply steamrolls the HD 6870 1GB at the resolutions which most gamers use and even runs neck and neck with the higher priced HD 6950 1GB. These statistics may look great but its performance against the GTX 470 is what really shows the kind of strides NVIDIA has been making with their refreshed cards.

By now it should be obvious that a 2GB frame buffer just isn’t needed on a card in the sub-$300 market but what this seems to be lacking is bandwidth. Even though the battle between the HD 6950 1GB and GTX 560 Ti swings back and forth from one game to the next, the NVIDIA card almost always looses out in bandwidth limited situations. In our opinion, GF114 has the Cayman Pro beat hands down from an architectural perspective but it lacks a real finishing punch at slightly higher resolutions.

It is important to remember that high resolution gaming isn’t usually on the minds of people looking at $250 graphics cards. Because of this, NVIDIA decided to focus their performance aspirations towards gamers using sub-27” monitors and ended up producing a highly versatile product that posts absolutely impressive numbers at key resolutions. From a performance per dollar standpoint, the GTX 560 Ti even makes the $289 HD 6950 2GB look like an overpriced also-ran instead of a market leader. Even the launch of 1GB Cayman Pro cards does nothing to shake the feeling that GF114 is the right architecture being introduced at the great time with a highly competitive price. Sure, the HD 6950 1GB gives the GTX 560 a run for its money but the NVIDIA card still edges it out in the overall cost category, surefire availability and its ability to overclock like no-one's business

In our opinion, the GTX 560 Ti is one of the best cards released in the last year or so. It is literally a perfect sub-$300 product which is quieter and more efficient than the competing AMD cards and even puts the once-mighty GTX 470 to shame. March marks the beginning of the busy PC and console game spring release season and the GTX 560 Ti is in an enviable position to take advantage of this upsurge in demand.